


Unarmed

by ariadnes_string



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 08:56:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10636554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariadnes_string/pseuds/ariadnes_string
Summary: Nina loves watching Inej take off her knives





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [evewithanapple](https://archiveofourown.org/users/evewithanapple/gifts).



> No spoilers for _Crooked Kingdom_.

Nina loves watching Inej take off her knives. The murmured names are a kind of ritual: _Petyr, Marya, Anastasia, Lizabeta, Sankt Vladimir, Sankta Alina. _Nina loves watching Inej conjure the blades out of their hiding places in her clothes and body, the care with which she lays them down. But most of all, she loves the trust that lets Inej come to her naked of weapons.__

__“My bird,” Nina whispers, when she approaches near enough to undo the buttons on Inej’s soft, black shirt._ _

__“Your crow?” Inej asks, as Nina presses her lips to the sweet brown hollow of Inej’s throat. “We’re all crows, here.”_ _

__“No, not that. No common bird. Something never before seen in Ketterdam.”_ Nina always tries to keep her wits about her in this place, to always be ready with a joke or a dig. But Inej sneaks under those defenses, rendering her earnest or sincere in a way she barely recognizes. _

__They all called Inej the Wraith, but she’d never seemed like a ghost or ghoul to Nina. More like a sleek, nocturnal bird who’d been blown astray into a world she could master but never call home. A mournful bird, her mouth too often set in a sad line that Nina always itched to turn into a smile.__

__

____

__Nina lays a line of kisses down the warm skin revealed by the undone buttons, and is rewarded if not with a smile, then with a low murmur of pleasure that is just as good._ _

__For a long time, Nina thought Inej showed up in her room at the White Rose at Kaz’s behest, to check up on her. She didn’t mind. The knowledge didn’t stop a pleasurable prickle of surprise sliding down her spine when she would turn around and find Inej in her room, no clue of how she got there. They’d exchange a few words, and then Nina would find herself watching Inej’s slim, black-clad form dancing away over the rooftops._ _

__She took to squirreling away treats to offer Inej on the rare occasions when she appeared, to coax her into staying longer. Chocolate biscuits. A marzipan frog. Candied flower petals. The kind of things that made Nina herself purr with pleasure. Inej accepted them politely, consumed them in swift, delicate bites, her eyes on Nina, even as Nina watched her lips, her delicate teeth, the dart of her tongue to catch a stray crumb from her fingers. Even as she ate, her eyes seemed to hold some other hunger, one that could not be assuaged by sweets, for her people, Nina imagined, or perhaps revenge._ _

__But for all Nina’s awkward attempts to cheer Inej, it was Inej who first comforted her. After a disturbing session with a Merch banker who had resisted the Grisha magic he'd paid for, while attempting freedoms he had not, she'd shown him the door, then stormed back to her room to find Inej there, picking up the pieces of a china plate that had been broken in the confrontation—well, all right, that Nina had thrown at him, hurting him much less than she wished to--much less than she was capable of.  
__

__She stopped, at first oddly ashamed for Inej to see the chaos of her life, her daily struggle. But Inej merely glanced at her, compassion in her eyes, and anger in the quick movement of her hands—anger Nina knew was not for her. She remembered the few things she’d been told about Inej’s own experiences with Tante Heleen. So Nina merely collapsed on the stool in front of her dressing table, surveying her disarranged clothing, her flushed cheeks, the ruin of her carefully braided hair. She grabbed a brush, and then dropped it again, gripping the edge of the table, white-knuckled, as she fought tears._ _

__“Let me,” Inej said unexpectedly, gathering Nina’s hair in her hands, deftly untangling it, her fingers cool against Nina’s skin. It was too much. The fire of futility was still upon her, her inability to change her situation, no matter what she did, and she grabbed Inej’s hands between her own, pressed them to her lips. Inej gasped, startled, and that, too, left Nina yearning for more. She pulled Inej towards her, kissing her like someone starved for contact. As perhaps she was. And then stopped, aghast at her own aggression—Inej could gut her in a second, with one of her famous knives._ _

__But to her surprise, Inej looked as overcome with desire as Nina was herself. With almost magical speed, she had straddled Nina’s lap, cupped the sides of her face, and kissed her back. “So beautiful,” she murmured, as her lips strayed from Nina’s mouth to her throat, and then to the sensitive skin above her breasts. Nina arched into her touch, willing Inej to carry her explorations lower._ _

__Things did not go smoothly that first time. How could they, for two people who had lived through the things that Nina and Inej, between them, had survived? The very nature of Ketterdam, its web of commerce, its stream of pleasures bought and paid for, was against them._ _

__Just as they had worked themselves into a happy tangle of silks, and limbs, and yes, knives, on Nina’s floor, Inej’s mouth on Nina’s breasts driving away all memory of the overreaching Merch, a short masculine groan had emanated from room next door. Just one of Chryssi’s regulars, Nina had realized. But the sound brought her back to herself with a thud. For Inej, it was as if cold water had been thrown on her. She pulled away, was on her knees, hands searching in their discarded clothing for her weapons. Nina could hear her panting, not with desire now, but fear and anger. Without trying, her Grisha senses picked up the gallop of Inej’s heart. She reached for her, but Inej had batted her hands away, her face shuttered._ _

__“I should go,” Inej said, her voice tight. How had she done it, Nina wondered, dressed, and secreted her knives around her, in the blink of an eye?_ _

__Nina had pulled what clothing she could find around her shoulder, feeling exposed. “Will you come back?” she asked, not bothering to keep the yearning from her voice. The long months in Ketterdam had drained her more than she’d realized, until she felt her body coming to life under Inej’s hands._ _

__But Inej hadn’t answered. Just flown away across the rooftops._ _

__Nina couldn’t imagine the courage it had taken for her to return. She wasn’t sure she would’ve managed it herself, no matter what pleasures were in the offing. But after more than a week, but less than two, Inej appeared in her room again. No word of greeting, just the murmured names of her knives as she laid them carefully along the windowsill._ _

___Petyr, Marya, Anastasia, Lizabeta, Sankt Vladimir, Sankta Alina.__ _

____Now, Nina slips her hands under the waistband of Inej’s black trousers, kneeling before her, her cheek against Inej’s belly. This close, Inej smells like cloves, or something sharper—some spice Nina doesn’t know the name of—and the scent of her arousal under that is sweet, inviting. And Inej, always so restrained, draws in her breath, and pushes Nina’s head farther down as her trousers drop to the floor. Greedy now, Nina’s parts Inej’s legs, finding an angle for her tongue to reach down into the folds of her, licking, circling, pressing, as her hands cup Inej’s ass, pulling her in._ _ _ _

____Inej’s pleasure is a song, a hum, a vibration Nina can feel in her own body. And even though Inej is impossibly strong for someone so slight, Nina knows that it’s only her hands on Inej’s hips, Inej's fingers locked in her hair, that are holding Inej up as her climax starts to rock her._ _ _ _

____Nina keeps pressure on Inej’s clit as the waves of her orgasm wash over her, and then together they sink to the floor, nesting in each other’s bodies. Inej makes tiny, contented movements, like a bird preening after a successful flight._ _ _ _

____“And you?” she whispers into Nina’s ear, as relaxed as Nina’s ever heard her. “How can I make you happy?’_ _ _ _


End file.
